This year, the Pentagon’s advanced research projects department will start testing their new “submarine” drone, which can lie in wait on the ocean floor for years before ever being launched into the skies.

The new drones, being developed by the Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency (DARPA), are part of a new focus by the US
military in developing and improving technology for emerging
threats.

These deployable, unmanned systems and sensors can theoretically
lie on the deep-ocean floor for years at time in anticipation of
the US Navy’s need for non-lethal assistance. When needed, the
deep-sea nodes can be activated remotely and recalled to the
surface.

DARPA will specifically be testing whether the drones can survive
for years under extreme pressure before being triggered from a
distance, and whether they can rise through a water column and
relay information. The tests are part of DARPA’s two phases under
its Upward Falling Payloads (UFP) program.

The UFP’s would be equipped with electronic and low-power laser
attack capabilities, surveillance sensors, and airborne and
aquatic drones that would have the ability to act as decoys or
offer intelligence and targeting data.

Much of the testing will be done in the Western Pacific. Nearly
50 percent of the world’s oceans are deeper than 2.5 miles (4km),
which provides areas of concealment and storage so assets can
remain undetected for long periods of time and still be recalled
when needed. The vastness also allows for simultaneous operation
across great distances.

“Today, the US Navy puts capability on the ocean floor using
very capable but fairly expensive submarine platforms,” said
Steven H. Walker, deputy director of DARPA. “What we’d like
to do in this program is preposition capability on the ocean
floor and have it available to be triggered [in] real time.”

The US Navy already uses ocean-faring drones called Slocum
Gliders to scan the sea and transmit information – mostly weather
and surveillance data – to ships. These drones don’t need fuel to
operate, but use ocean currents for propulsion and buoyancy to
shift direction.

DARPA released a biennial report last week summarizing its
evolving focus to maintain America’s strategic position in the
world.

“DARPA’s mission and philosophy have held steady for decades,
but the world around DARPA has changed dramatically,” the
report says. “Those changes include some remarkable and even
astonishing scientific and technological advances … at the same
time, the world is experiencing some deeply disturbing technical,
economic and geopolitical shifts that pose threats to US
preeminence and stability.”

DARPA is seeking a 59 percent increase in the UFP budget, from
$11.9 million to 19 million, it was reported in March. But
overall, President Barack Obama requested a $3 billion budget for
DARPA for the fiscal year 2016, a slight increase over previous
years. This would enable the agency to carry out ambitious
project in four areas outlined in its biennial report – Rethink
Complex Military Systems; Master the Information Explosion;
Harness Biology as Technology; and Expand the Technological
Frontier.

“The reason we’re able to have this big impact is because we
work with and tap the resources of a vast technological
ecosystem,” DARPA Director Arati Prabhakar said in a press
briefing. “Much is done with universities and companies of
every stripe – defense contractors, but also commercial companies
as small as startups and as big as major firms.”